THE Federal Government on Wednesday commenced enforcement of COVID-19 vaccine mandate with security agencies preventing unvaccinated civil servants from accessing their offices at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja.
This is coming amidst apprehension that the country on Wednesday reported three cases of the new Omicron variant of the COVID-19. Nigerian Tribune, however, observed that the strict enforcement was only at the Head of Civil Service of Federation Wing of the Federal Secretariat Complex, Abuja, where officers of Nigeria Police Force and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence (NSCDC) were deployed enforce the no vaccination card, no entry order.
At the Phase I and Phase II of the Federal Secretariat, Housing Ministry of Education and former Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation respectively, no enforcement was noticed as both workers and visitors were seen entering and coming of the offices without restriction.
The situation was different at the HOS complex as workers and general public who failed to provide proof of vaccination or negative Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) at the entrance gate to the Head of Service building were turned back with many of civil servants accusing government of discriminatory enforcement of compulsory vaccination.
Ahead of the directive by the Federal Government that officers in the public service on Grade Level 12 and below should resume duties on December 1, the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 had insisted that civil servants without proof of vaccination and negative PCR tests would not be allowed to access government buildings from December 1, 2021.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation and chairman Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, reinforced the directive on Monday during the national briefing of the committee. While many civil servants thronged the various vaccination centres provided at the Federal Secretariat to get their jabs, some recalcitrant workers told Nigerian Tribune that they would not present themselves for vaccination because of various myths surrounding the vaccines.
One of the workers told Nigerian Tribune pointedly that he was not losing anything to the Federal Government if he was not allowed to do his work by the same government that gave him employment.
Some others who spoke with Nigerian Tribune accused the Federal Government of discriminatory enforcement, saying the government chose to compel only civil servants to vaccinate while the same is not enforced in the military and paramilitary agencies, and other segments of the public service.
National President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Dr Tommy Okon, told Nigerian Tribune that the workers were not against the vaccination but asked the government to extend the deadline to the first quarter of 2022.
“The vaccine is in two folds, the first jab and the second completion jab. It, therefore, means that when you take the first jab, you have to wait for a month for the second dose and this directive came not up to a month ago, and you are subjecting your workers to this medical trauma,” Okon said.
He appealed to the Federal Government to extend the deadline to first quarter of next year for every worker to be on their toes to meet the deadline, insisting that the December 1 deadline was too short for implementation.
However, when contacted, Dr Muktar Muhammad, the Technical Head, Presidential Steering Committee (PSC), said there was no plan to extend the deadline for the vaccine mandate as approved by the president.
The Federal Government had directed officers in the public service on Grade Level 12 and below to resume duties on Wednesday, as the head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the vaccine mandate policy, making it mandatory for all Federal Government employees to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or present a negative COVID 19 PCR test result done within 72 hours before allowed into their offices.
Credit: Tribune